Penders was an obscure coach at Fordham when he sent in the only official job application of his career. With nary a game of NCAA Tournament experience on his résumé, Penders wanted to be the coach to replace the retiring Guy V. Lewis at the University of Houston.

UH replied with a thanks-but-no-thanks form letter.

''Looking back on it," Penders said, ''it probably would have been career suicide."

The coaching graveyards are littered with the remains of those ambitious or addled enough to follow a legend. More than two decades after Lewis chewed up his last checkered towel, the UH sideline is a safe place for Penders to walk.

Greats to gather Saturday

Penders will bring an 11-2 UH team to the
Guy V. Lewis Court
at Hofheinz Pavilion on Saturday afternoon for a game against the
Arizona Wildcats
. Lewis will give up his usual spot in an upper-level box to sit courtside during the first half. He is 85, and he suffered a severe stroke nearly six years ago, so he doesn't get around so easily anymore.

A courtside seat is a must for Lewis to participate in the halftime ceremony planned in his honor. Former UH greats Elvin Hayes, Don Chaney and Otis Birdsong will be among those present to pay tribute to Lewis, who this past fall got inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. Lewis won 592 games in 30 seasons at his alma mater, leading 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament and five to the Final Four.

One egregious omission

''The guy is a treasure," Penders said. ''I don't ever want him taken for granted as long as I'm here. I know what he did. He's not just a coach. He's one of the greatest coaches of all time. He's a great man. It's a chance to properly honor him."

That's not entirely true. The proper and fitting honor would be enshrinement into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Hayes long has characterized the omission of Lewis as ''one of the great injustices of the game." Any amends from that Hall of Fame would be too little, way too late, because Lewis wouldn't be able to make the trip to that corner of the world and get the full induction experience.

''His first year out of coaching, he should have been in there," said former UH star and NBA player Michael Young, now the school's director of basketball operations and performance enhancement. ''He knew how to coach talent, and I've seen him with some teams that didn't have talent, and he knew how to coach them. A lot of the things he said, a lot of the things he did, that's the reason why those (championship) banners are hanging up there.

''He used to tell us: 'Play and do what we do. Don't worry about the other team.' It really got you prepared mentally."

In all five of Lewis' Final Four appearances, his team lost to the eventual national champion. The knock on him was that he did little more than roll the balls out on the floor and get out of his players' way. Somehow, though, Hayes, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler went on from UH to become members of the NBA's 50 Greatest Team. The only coach to produce more top-50 players was John Wooden.

Lewis also helped blaze the trail for integrated basketball programs in the South, luring Hayes and Chaney out of Louisiana in the mid-1960s. Hayes and Chaney played in the epic Jan. 20, 1968, Game of the Century against UCLA at the Astrodome. In college basketball's first nationally televised regular-season game, the Cougars squeezed out a 71-69 victory that ended UCLA's 47-game winning streak.

The brains behind that matchup on the big stage was none other than Lewis. Just like that, college basketball became a viable regular-season commodity for the TV networks. Why history doesn't fully recognize Lewis' accomplishments remains one of basketball's biggest unsolved mysteries.

''There's no explanation for it," Penders said. ''In my coaching career, I never heard a negative about Guy V. Lewis. There are at least 25 college coaches who have made that Hall of Fame who don't have nearly the credentials."

When Penders was coaching Bridgeport (Conn.) High in 1971, he wrote Lewis about possibly bringing his team to see the Cougars play a game at Madison Square Garden. Lewis called back with his blessing and met with Penders and the team at a restaurant after the game. At some point every season, Penders makes it a point to show his UH players a video presentation of the Lewis years.

''I think the game means a lot, because they're honoring Guy V. Lewis," senior UH guard Robert McKiver said. ''He's the one who jump-started this program. That's why I'm excited about honoring Guy V. Lewis. There's more pressure on us to play hard and give a great effort. We just have to let it all hang out and do what we do well."

That last sentence is eerily similar to something Lewis might have told his players. Clearly, McKiver has been soaking in some UH tradition.